Patriots’ porous defense struggles against Bills

Monday

Nov 12, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Nothing is more important at the end of a game than the final score. That’s as obvious as the Kardashians’ lack of talent. The Patriots came out ahead in that regard for a third straight game and the fifth time in the last six with a 37-31 victory over the Buffalo Bills yesterday at Gillette Stadium.

By Rich Garven TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Nothing is more important at the end of a game than the final score. That’s as obvious as the Kardashians’ lack of talent.

The Patriots came out ahead in that regard for a third straight game and the fifth time in the last six with a 37-31 victory over the Buffalo Bills yesterday at Gillette Stadium.

That raised their record to 6-3 and pushed their lead in the AFC East to two games, which might as well be 20 with the way the rest of the division is performing.

“It was good to win,” coach Bill Belichick said, repeating himself for emphasis.

No debate there. But the discussion over the merits of his defense is a topic that’s hotter than a habanero.

Again.

The Bills ran on the Patriots. They passed on the Patriots. They scored on the Patriots.

These being the Bills, the only thing they didn’t do was beat the Patriots. Not that they didn’t have their chances.

The last one came when quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick zipped a perfect pass into the end zone on second and 10 from the New England 15 with 28 seconds to play. Only one problem.

He targeted Devin McCourty, who happens to play safety for the Patriots. McCourty came up with the interception, sealing the outcome and allowing the 68,756 patrons on hand to simultaneously exhale.

The Bills, like the Jets three weeks ago, were positioned to KO the Patriots in the waning minutes. Like their fellow New Yorkers they departed kicking themselves in the you-know-what and slapping themselves up on the side of their helmets.

“That was one of those right-place, right-time moments right there,” McCourty said.

That was one of three turnovers produced by the defense, which is pretty much the only right thing they did.

The Bills had 481 yards, 35 first downs and a 75 percent conversation rate on third/fourth down. Fitzpatrick threw for 337 yards, two touchdowns and five completions of 20-plus yards, adding to the Patriots’ league-leading total.

Aqib Talib can’t get here soon enough.

But the New Englanders’ perpetually anemic play against the pass was alarmingly contagious yesterday. The heretofore stellar run defense suddenly melted like the Polar icecaps.

The Patriots came in allowing 3.5 yards a carry. They had surrendered 11 runs of 10-plus yards and seen one runner, Ray Rice, gain more than 55 yards on them.

The Bills averaged 5.8 yards a tote and had seven runs of at least 10 yards as Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller had 80 and 70 yards, respectively.

“They’re not easy to get on the ground, even if you play halfway decently,” Belichick said. “They make a lot of yards on their own.”

The Patriots generously aided the cause with poor tackling from start to finish. Two, three, four players sometimes whiffed on one play.

Their inability to execute fundamentally isn’t what you’d expect out of a Belichick-coached team at this point in the season, especially one coming off its bye week. So what was up?

“I think they have a real good group of skill players that are hard to tackle,” Belichick said. “Part of that is a credit to them, but we’ve got to do a better job. I don’t know how else to answer the question.”

Nine games have been played and problems persist for a defense that, even were it average, would make the Patriots overwhelming Super Bowl favorites.

From the outside it looks like more of the same old, same old.

Vince Wilfork thinks otherwise. He sees improvement and points to the fact the Patriots were able to hold off the Jets and the Bills, something that didn’t occur earlier in the season when they lost at Baltimore in Week 3 and at Seattle in Week 6.

“Situational football,” the big defensive lineman said. “You saw games earlier in the year where we lost in this situation and you’ve seen two division games that we won in good situations. I mean, trust me when I say we are actually getting better.

“And I know we can get (even) better because everything isn’t figured out yet. We have to continue to move on and get better and we will.”

This defense is moving on after another win, but it’s hard to see any progress being made.

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